Your Anger is misplaced

by | Apr 18, 2016 | Social Media

If you live on Earth, you know of the controversy of NC legislation regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. You know because once again, rational debate has been abandoned in favor of hysteria, insults and grandstanding.

To recap – minus the hysteria – Charlotte passed a city ordinance expanding protection from discrimination for LGBTs. The part that started an uproar was the part where transgenders could use a public restroom of the gender they identify with, even if that differed from their birth certificate.

The conservative state House, outraged, called a special session and passed a law overturning the Charlotte ordinance. (Hey, look, government CAN do something quickly after all!)

Then the hysteria really took off. PayPal cancelled a new development planned for Charlotte. Bruce Springsteen and Boston cancelled concerts in NC. Cries came from the US Senate to move the 2017 NBA All-Star Game away from Charlotte. Proponents of the Charlotte ordinance are shrieking that North Carolina hates LGBTs and is run by Bible-thumping, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal cave dwellers. Proponents of the state law swear that the Charlotte ordinance was the gateway to every sexual predator on Earth sprinting to Charlotte to stalk women’s restrooms to feast on the bounty of little girls available to them.

For those that oppose the state bill, your anger is misplaced.

Let’s put this in simple words. Charlotte passes a bill expanding protections for LGBTs. The state legislature in Raleigh slaps them down with contrary legislation. People demand the NBA All-Star Game be taken from Charlotte. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

If you support the Charlotte ordinance, the LAST thing you should be doing is demanding Charlotte be punished by losing events and development. Charlotte is the one that tried to look out for the interests of LGBTs. The anger should be directed at the STATE legislature. And don’t worry; the NC citizens will take care of that. Now that NC has seen tangible economic damage from the state law, I expect the Republicans to get crushed in the November elections. Democrat Roy Cooper is going to easily defeat Pat McCrory for Governor, and the Democrats will gain a super-majority in both houses of the legislature.

But the truly sad part of all this is that we as a people continue to devolve into a people that never addresses tricky subjects with maturity and rationality, preferring screaming and “I’m right and everyone else is evil” attacks.